Vuk “Gramophone and Periscope”
Play six degrees of separation with Brooklyn art rock ensemble the Dirty Projectors and you’ll come a cross a veritable rabbit hole of artistic talent. After posting on Deradoorian the other day I found a track in my inbox from another alumnus, Vuk. Vuk is a Finnish-American experimental rock artist who was a DP percussionist/vocalist circa 2004-2005. Her debut solo record The Plains just dropped in April on the Helsinki based label Pyramid/Johanna kustannus. I have only had a few chances to listen to it but definitely am digging Vuk’s idiosyncratic brand of dream-pop. “Gramaphone and Periscope” makes a good introduction—it’s pretty far out but definitely one of the record’s more easily accessible tracks. The song is a multiform pump organ-driven dirge that incorporates Eastern sounding autoharp arrangements with call and response vocal harmonies. As far as shows go, while Vuk appears to split her time between NYC and Finland, all of her current tour dates appear to be in the motherland. So, unless you are one of Culture Bully’s many Finnish ubscribers, you may have to wait for awhile until she is back stateside to see her.
(photo by Jussi Puikkonen via MySpace)